Posted on 04/22/2009 7:50:28 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Obama’s selective release of Bush Administration memos which demonstrated legal grounds for enhanced interrogation of a handful of Al Queda terrorists guilty of mass murder of American citizens raised eyebrows for the risk it posed by informing future terrorists of our interrogation methods.
But now, we learn that the timing of this release may have more to do with left wing partisan demands for Bush Administration officials to be prosecuted:
Senior Bush figures could be prosecuted for torture, says Obama
President says use of waterboarding showed US had ‘lost moral bearings’ as Dick Cheney says CIA memos showed torture delivered ‘good’ intelligence
By Ewan MacAskill and Robert Booth
guardian.co.uk,
Tuesday 21 April 2009Senior members of the Bush administration who approved the use of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation measures could face prosecution, President Obama disclosed today .
He said the use of torture reflected America “losing our moral bearings”.He said his attorney general, Eric Holder, was conducting an investigation and the decision rested with him. Obama last week ruled out prosecution of CIA agents who carried out the interrogation of suspected al-Qaida members at Guantánamo and secret prisons around the world.
But for the first time today he opened up the possibility that those in the administration who gave the go-ahead for the use of waterboarding could be prosecuted.
…
Obama, taking questions from the press during a visit by King Abdullah of Jordan, reiterated he did not believe in prosecution of those CIA agents who carried out the interrogations within the guidelines set down for them.
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net ...
Support of muslims? He will have to go back to every Presidents staff and prosecute them also. He will also loose all CIA and Military support in the future. He’s traveling down a dangerous road.
Any terrorist attack on the US now and Obama owns it. Big Time. Guess what, I don’t think the people of the US will put up with it, either. The Democrat Party is the enemy within, and all that implies, on both sides.
If Bush administrations are to be prosecuted for devising acceptable methods of “torture”, or what normal people would call “hazing”, then shouldn’t Obama himself be prosecuted for personally ordering the murder of those poor pirates?
Good.
I think the Discovery will shut these Communists up quickly. “losing our moral bearings” indeed. Tell that to the people who died on 9/11. This wingnut has lost his immoral mind. We’re going back to 9/10 folks. Expect a terrorist attack in our future.
It was either that or 0be would have been arrested as being an illegal enemy combatant and sent to Gitmo.
“He said the use of torture reflected America ‘losing our moral bearings’”
Likewise, we lost our way when Obama’s hero Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, placed civilians under the jurisdiction of military courts, declared martial law, imprisoned dissdents, destroy printing presses, ignored the Supreme Court when it judged his actions unconstitutional.
Or when Wilson prompted civilians to spy on eachother, and cracked down on traitorous immigrants and the clear and present danger of people on soapboxes on street corners.
Or when Obama’s hero FDR treated Nazi spies like enemy combatants or put American citizens in concentration camps without due process.
Just because the current wars don’t disrupt people’s lives too much does not mean they are in fact WARS.
Prosecute Bush officials, Pardon the Teenage Pirate. he is useless
He’s going to get the Right Wing lunatic fringe to try and go after him. Maybe that’s the idea.
“Just because the current wars don’t disrupt people’s lives too much does not mean they are in fact WARS.”
Meant to say, “...does not mean they aren’t in fact WARS.”
Will the obama thugs be prosecuted for the misery heaped on taxpayers now and in the future. The scope of the misery he is bringing to millions far surpasses this blip on the screen of waterboarding a handful of trained mass murderers. How bout we get Bill Ayers for murder?
Thanks for adding that.
***********************
More on that:
Banned Techniques Yielded ‘High Value Information,’ Memo Says (Full, unedited memo released)
by NY Times ^ | 4/21/09 | Peter Baker
*********************************EXCERPT INTRO ...FR Thread********************************
President Obama’s national intelligence director told colleagues in a private memo last week that the harsh interrogation techniques banned by the White House did produce significant information that helped the nation in its struggle with terrorists.
Why Obama Won’t Release ALL the CIA Memos on “Torture”
****************************EXCERPT INTRO****************************
Flopping Aces ^ | Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 at 9:43 am | Mike's America
Posted on Tue 21 Apr 2009 12:50:48 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
They show that enhanced interrogations saved thousands of American lives!
Last week the Obama Administration released a selected batch of memos detailing the Bush Administration’s scrupulous efforts to maintain humane, yet effective interrogations of the most vile Al Queda terrorists in our custody. That move was opposed by former CIA Chief Michael Hayden as well as four current and former CIA chiefs and others who realized that it only served to help future captured terrorists resist providing the information needed to save American lives.
In an interview with Sean Hannity on Monday, former Vice President Cheney called on the Obama Administration to release additional memos which prove how effective advanced interrogation methods were in preventing future attacks:
CHENEY: “I know specifically of reports that I read, that I saw that lay out what we learned through the interrogation process and what the consequences were for the country.
And I’ve now formally asked the CIA to take steps to declassify those memos so we can lay them out there and the American people have a chance to see what we obtained and what we learned and how good the intelligence was, as well as to see this debate over the legal opinions.”
However, there was some evidence tucked away in the memos which hasn’t been highlighted by the sensationalist media reporting over so-called “torture:”
By the way, here’s Eric Holder’s view on all this, on CNN back in 2002 (via Jonah Godberg at The Corner)…
“One of the things we clearly want to do with these prisoners is to have an ability to interrogate them and find out what their future plans might be, where other cells are located; under the Geneva Convention that you are really limited in the amount of information that you can elicit from people.
It seems to me that given the way in which they have conducted themselves, however, that they are not, in fact, people entitled to the protection of the Geneva Convention. They are not prisoners of war. If, for instance, Mohamed Atta had survived the attack on the World Trade Center, would we now be calling him a prisoner of war? I think not. Should Zacarias Moussaoui be called a prisoner of war? Again, I think not.”
Decision to Release Interrogation Memos
******************** links at the website******************** ************************
U.S. Department of Justice Memos Disclosed by the Obama Administration, 4/16/09 (PDF Downloads)
I didn't know that 'losing our moral bearings' was illegal. Does 'losing our moral bearings' include blowing smack?
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